At times in Christian thought, the priorities of pure doctrine and passionate mission have been perceived as opposites on a spectrum where emphasis on one results in neglect of the other, but without one, the other is deficient and doomed to crumble. Mission without doctrine is like a body without a skeleton, but apart from mission, doctrine is like dry bones in a museum. A Lutheran Reformission maintains a dual emphasis, resulting in doctrinal missions as well as missional doctrine.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Q: Does Christianity believe in
Karma? How does Christianity believe
peoples actions toward one another are rewarded and punished in this
world?

Karma is an idea that originates in
East-Asian religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. Their understanding of both time and life
is one of repeating cycles rather than the linear progression that we in the
western world understand. So, while we
illustrate the passage of time with timelines of history, they would draw a
shape resembling a coiled spring that wraps back on itself.

Part of this understanding includes
reincarnation, which is the belief that souls are repeatedly born into a series
of lives over the course of time. Karma
carries the result that those who do good in one life will advance in the next
while those who do evil will regress in the next life. Many in these religions also believe that
Karma also influences events within lives.

This means that those who do what is
right in this life would receive good fortune in return while those who do evil
in this life would suffer loss or tragedy in return. These karmic responses are not seen as being
guided by a personal god, but rather an impersonal universe which seeks to keep
balance by repaying actions with consequences in kind.

While such an understanding might
seem quite sensible on its surface, such ideas are completely foreign to a
Christian understanding of things. When
Jesus’ disciples encountered a man who had been born blind, they asked whether
it was he or his parents who had committed a sin to cause such a thing to
occur. Jesus clearly denies that any
such thing is true, saying that neither was the cause of his blindness.

Even though sometimes sinful or
unwise behavior has natural consequences, Christianity does not understand any
system, with or without the guidance of God, which repays them in this
life. Instead, the unanimous witness of
Scripture is that earthly tragedies are a result of sin in the world. However, this is not a correspondence of one
sin or one person’s sin to certain consequences. Instead, the Bible portrays earthly suffering
as the consequences broken by the collective weight of human sin.

For Christianity, there are
consequences to sinful behavior that go beyond the natural results of the
action, but these consequences are eternal rather earthly, and complete rather
than proportional—any deviation from perfection deserves eternal death and
punishment in hell.

Rewards in Christianity are likewise
opposite to the idea of karma.
Christianity sees no ability in humans to earn rewards from God. Because they fail to achieve perfection, they
fail the test of God’s law.

Instead, rewards are received by the
Christian based on Jesus’ performance rather than their own. Whoever trusts in Jesus’ is promised to be
rewarded on the basis of His perfect record which replaces their own. These rewards are received as a gift rather
than earned, and like the punishments deserved for sin, they are only realized
in eternity.

While trust in Jesus has benefits in
this world such as peace with God and relief from the anxiety of relying on the
uncertainties of our imperfect efforts in relation to God, these benefits are
secondary to the primary reward of resurrected life with Jesus that will be
initiated on the Last Day and continue without end.

Karma is ultimately the complete
opposite of the Christian understanding of rewards and punishments—both because
it relies on a different basis (human performance vs. divine gift) and because it
awards them in this life or subsequent lives rather than in an eternity which
commences following only a single life in this world.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

My article from this week's Algona Upper Des Moines about certainty and doubt in Christianity:

Q: How can I be certain that I am
really Christian? If I find myself
doubting, can I still be saved?

This is a question that Christians
throughout the ages have found themselves considering. Because humans are hard-wired for action for
the purpose of survival, we almost automatically translate this capacity in
earthly things into our consideration of spiritual things. In keeping with this, many people even
mistakenly attribute Benjamin Franklin’s proverb that “God helps those who help
themselves” to the Bible instead.

Because we are personally responsible
for preserving the security of our earthly provisions, although doing so with
talents and strength that were given by God, we too often assume that the same
applies when we begin considering heavenly matters.

Even for Christians who acknowledge
that Jesus saves us as a gift, which we receive by trusting in and relying
upon, the temptation arises to look within ourselves for a measurement of how
well we trust in Jesus or how fully we rely upon Him. But doing this introduces an element of doubt
by placing the focus on our believing instead of God’s grace.

When we consider our standing before
God, however, Scripture makes abundantly clear that, spiritually speaking,
there is nothing good in us that can cause or improve where we stand with God,
and that there is no effort or worthiness in us that is sufficient to
participate in saving us.

Paul quotes the Psalms as evidence of
this when he writes in the book of Romans:
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understand; no one seeks for
God. All have turned aside; toether they
have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

However, this is not bad news. In fact, it serves to prepare us for even
greater assurance. If we were capable of
contributing something, we would be expected to do so, and accountable if we
failed. Instead, as Paul tells the
Ephesians: “It is by grace you are
saved, through faith…not by works.” Nothing
within man is the determining factor in salvation—not our decision, not our
cooperation, not even the quantity or quality of our believing.

Instead, we place all of our
confidence and certainty on Jesus. He
has accomplished salvation. He forgives
sins. He does it all. Faith is not a degree of trust that a Christian
works up within himself to come to or look to Jesus, but instead, it is the
Christian’s denial of themselves and their own participation and their reliance
upon Jesus’ death as the complete and already-accomplished cause of salvation.

When the Bible warns against “doubt,”
what it cautions against is unbelief—the prideful rejection of Jesus as the
all-accomplishing savior or the denial of His forgiveness. When the Christian who still trusts in Jesus,
finds himself questioning in search of confirmation or feeling a degree of
uncertainty because of his own weakness or the deceit of false teachers, this
is not the doubt which condemns, but rather, a part of the spiritual battle
that rages as long as this life endures.

If embraced or allowed to fester,
such doubts could eventually grow like a cancer to endanger a Christians soul,
but when treated with the antidote of Scripture and the Sacraments and relieved
by the support of fellow Christians, they often prove to be the experiences
which ultimately serve to advance the Christian in their understanding of and
perseverance in the Faith, as James says:
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”

Lutheranism is more than a cultural identity or a denominational label. In fact, this cultural and institutional baggage may be the primary obstacle in Lutheranism’s path.

To be a Lutheran is not dependent on a code of behavior or a set of common customs. Instead, to be a Lutheran is to receive Jesus in His Word, Body, and Blood for the forgiveness of sins in the Divine Service; and to be bearers of this pure Truth to a broken world corrupted with sin, death, and every lie of the devil and man’s own sinful heart.

While the false and misleading ideas of human religious invention are appealing to sin-blinded minds, they fail when exposed to the realities of life. It is tragic when souls are led to confusion and despair because of the false religious ideas with which they are surrounded. The Biblical doctrine taught by the Apostles and restored at the Reformation holds answers which are relevant regardless of time or place and offers assurance of forgiven sins and eternal life who all who believe its message.

I am a husband, a father, the pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Burt, IA, and track chaplain at Algona Raceway.